“Windows 8 shipped last week to mixed reviews. Ballmer himself called it ‘a bold re-imagining’ of Windows. It’s bold alright, but not bold enough. Windows is doomed,” Bob Cringely writes for I, Cringley.
“We can argue all day about whether Windows 8 is better or worse than Windows 7 or even Windows 9, but the real issue here isn’t the software at all but the platform, by which I mean the desktop PC. Companies, governments, families, schools, and individuals are all buying fewer desktop PCs than they used to. Desktop growth has reversed and international desktop expansion is slowing as even that market matures,” Cringely writes. “This year will probably mark Microsoft’s highest desktop sales ever in dollar volume, which sounds good, except that next year sales will be less as they will again the year after and every year past that.”
“Six years from now (four hardware generations) Windows will be dead. Or free,” Cringely writes. “And for all his bold re-imagining in New York last week, Steve Ballmer knows this, and that’s his dilemma.”
Cringely writes, “Having not invented any of the products it is known for, why should we expect Microsoft to invent its way out of declining markets? We shouldn’t.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows has always been dead to us, but from your lips to God’s ears, Bob.
When we wrote the following nearly eight years ago, many laughed:
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Who’s laughing now?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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Sheesh, Cringely, do some investigation before you talk about a dead system. DOS dies years ago, but continues on in it’s zombie form of Windoze.
I couldn’t afford a Mac for YEARS. So I got nothing. I refused to get the complex, stress-inducing Windows. I just waited…and waited. Once I got my first, they seemed to BREED! Now, after these many years, Macs are running all over the house!
Apple’s $30 or less OS is kicking butt on Windows OS ……
Some years ago I already came to the conclusion Microsoft would have to re-invent Windows at some stage. Maybe take a leaf from Steve Jobs and throw it out and start selling a completely new operating system as the next version of Windows. It will be interesting to see what happens.
I guess it makes you all feel good about yourselves to sit here in this tiny corner of MacWorld and rage against the Machine. Like it or not, Windows still has over 90% of the worldwide market, over 95% of the enterprise market. That is not going to evaporate in six years no matter how much you all want it or how good you feel about saying it. Any company would kill to have a quarter of that. Alas, Apple is still running less than 10%. But, I guess you can dream. BTW, I have, and use, both.
Peter Baker you obviously haven’t seen this news story
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/microsoft-ceo-hails-imminent-release-of-windows-8/story-fnbzs1v0-1226503723271
[quote]
The shift to mobile devices has whittled Microsoft’s worldwide share of the computing device market from 67 per cent in 2008 to about 30 per cent today, estimates Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett. Thanks to its Android software for phones and tablets, Google is now the leader with a 40 per cent share of the computing device market. Apple stands at 20 per cent.
[/quote]
As for Google being “the leader” I would say the growth of iOS usage would challenge that before too long.
People said the same thing about IBM and its dominance over the personal computer market. But how did that turn out? Their “invincible” empire crumbled practically overnight.
Windows 8 is Microsoft’s own IBM PC apocalypse. It won’t be all that long until you find yourself saying “Windows still has over 80% of the worldwide market”. Then 60%… Then 50%…
And that isn’t even getting in to the flops that are Windows Phone and Surface, and how an increasing number of people are realizing that they don’t really need the piece of garbage known as Office. Or the consumerization of IT. I predict 2013 to be the year that Microsoft pretty much dies.
Windows is the Chrysler and Pontiac of the computer world. There will always be a market for dumb shoppers who brag about the cheaper software and hardware they can buy, but care little about the quality or function. I always hate the guy who pulls out his 10 dollar timed and brags how cheap it has been and that it works great! I’ll keep my Omega and my Apple computer. You keep on living your pig in shit lives, while we enjoy form and function!
Timex not timed. Damn iPad! 😀
I for one would love to see the demise of Windows. Unfortunately, large corporations hang their existence on Microsoft Windows. Can’t see that changing anytime soon.